They look like 19th century ukiyo-e prints, but these images are scenes from a Japanaese picture scroll and therefore part of a story, analogous to pages in a book. Their nearest western counterpart would be the rolls papyrus found in the ancient near east.
Whether drawn, painted or stamped on silk-backed paper. the Emaki-mono (picture scroll) reads from right to left, the order of reading in Japanese. Anchored at one end with a wooden dowel used for rolling up and storage, the scrolls were labeled on the outside, like book spines There are scrolls that unroll to a width of forty feet. The Emaki-mono date back to the Kamakurai Period (1185-1338), from which one of the earliest surviving picture scrolls is a version of Murasaki Shikibo's epic The Tale Of Genji.
Like Murasaki Shikibu, women of the Imperial court were the writers of the tales preserved on early picture scrolls. They would also have been the artists who drew the pictures and, thus, were producers of the literature of the aristocracy. When it came to tales of military exploits and recounting the lives of the monks of the temples, men got into the act. Something that continues from the picture scroll to the woodblock print is the elevated perspective. Westerners often call this a 'bird's eye view', but I am persuaded of the aptness of the Japanese term - fukinuki yatari. It means "blown-off roof." In both images shown here the turbulent, foaming waters look like the effects of a fierce wind. What is the natural habitat of the carp is transformed, perhaps by the proximity to the temple, into a temporary space of grace for the human figure.
Images: from the Smith-Lebouef manuscript in the collection of the Bibliotheque nationale de France, Paris; the artist is possibly Matsuko Ryokuzan.